THE TILLAGE OF LIGHT OR A TRVE DISCOVERIE of the Philosophicall Elixir commonly called the PHILOSOPHERS STONE Seruing To enrich all true noble and generous Spirits as will aduenture some few labors in the tillage of such a light as is worthy the best obseruance of the most Wise By PATRICK SCOT Esquire Agere pati sortia Sed Misereri sapere difficile Tamen Quemcunque fortem videris miserum ne dixeris quia Labore patientia dura molescunt LONDON Printed for William Lee and are to be sold at his Shop neere Serieants Inne in Fleetstreet at the Signe of the Golden Bucke 1623. TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE AND euery way Noble IOHN Marquesse of HAMLETON Earle of Arren Lord Euendeale Gentleman of his Maiesties Bed-chamber Knight of the Noble Order of the Garter and one of his Maiesties most Honorable Priuie Councell in the Kingdomes of England and Scotland RIGHT HONORABLE ALthough many powerfull motiues haue giuen wings to my boldnesse to beg that my ill tilld Tillage may bee enclosed by the hedge of your Honours Protection yet the chiefest reason is that your innate Wisedome and Bountie-polished by the Theoricke practise and loue of Learning values reall good meaning aboue greater showes of fawning flattery or affected curiositie I doe but set a Candle before the Sunshine of your exquisite knowledge in the true Diuine and Philosophicall Elixir but sith what I haue done is as well to shew my ambition to haue your Honourable approbation as to bee a Symboll of my zeale to your seruice If it please your Honour to pardon my zeale you may iustly condemne my aspiring ayme whose prematured Labours soares so high as giue Cognizance to the world that as I am I shall euer continue Your Honors deuoted Seruant PA. SCOT TO THE GENEROVS READER THere is generous Reader no Tillage more difficult then that of the Heart in the heart no field more rough to plough then that of Wisdome maruell not then that my blushing pen proclaimes my ill Husbandry in putting off this ill cultur'd Farme to your suruey yet if you value the Balkes with the better Ground you shal rate the whole at a high price Howsoeuer I am your Suppliant that you will accept of my Loue in the offer laugh at my vanitie in greeting you with Performance and conceale my rusticitie in both Your hard censure may perhaps send my Plough to guard the Breach of some Caterpiller-eaten Hedge turne my Grounds waste to bee Nurseries of Brambles or inroll mee Retainer to Duke Humphrey who hath already moe Attendants then good cheere Farewell Preparatio Analogia perfectio operis Diuini Philosophici IN sudore vultus tui manducabis panem tuum Virtutem sudore dii obuallarūt Perseuerantia sola virtutum coronatur Qui perseuerabit vsque ad finem is saluus erit Fac volatile fixum fixum volatile sic habes magisterium Errata PAge 1. lin 5. reade Hipocrates for Hipocrites pag. 1. l. 14. read Elixir as else where pa. 4. l 18. read Mettallicall pa. 23. l. 5. reade that for the. l. 7. reade pounding for punding pa. 24. l. 3. after corporall a full point pa. 25. l. 15. read there for then pag. 26. l. 22. read yet for that pag. 29. l. 20. reade stone THE TILLAGE OF LIGHT SVch is the community of Loue and simpathy of affections which ciuill societie challengeth of vs in tendring the weale of others as our owne that as Hipocrites his Twins who sorrowed and sickned together wee ought equally condole either publike calamities or priuate distemperatures if then I shall by my Tillage forestall the painefull toile and wastefull charges which I obserue haue beene and are yet vnprofitably imployed in the search of an imaginarie non ens onely knowne by the vsurped name of the Philosophers elixar or stone I hope I shall wrong no true Artist and preuent some future charges in the finding out of Artificiall gold or as some name it light incorporat by art which is but a poysonable pill gilded with sophisticated curiosity base couetousnesse or incroaching cunning emulous strangers and irreconciliable enemies to Philosophy That I may the better cleere this let vs consider first that Philosophy in the denomination is onely extended to the loue of wisdome that this wisdome consists in moulding the actions of Philosophers in a diuine frame and innocent obseruance of humane societie that by such presidencie and imitation wisdome might bee exalted to the highest degrees of humane reach but least wisdome might Prophesie to the winde or that shee will not be apprehended but of sound mindes that a glorious spirit will not appeare but in her owne kinde and that a precious seed requires pure earth these Philosophers did sometimes pourtrey wisdome in darke hierogliphicks sometimes in fabulous attire they haue deified her entituling her to the names of Mercury Pallas Minerua begotten by Iupiter all which doe mystically imply that true wisdome commeth and by vs receiued from heauen If wee will leaue these heathen sparkes of natures light and looke backe vpon the glorious sunne of sacred writ we shall finde that in the beginning and succession of time wisdome was recommended to vs by mysteries parables allegories and analogies but that diuine Oracles or Philosophicall morals were applied to any materiall elixar or that any curious search was any further allowed then might aduance wisdome bee profitable to humane societie heare speake glory to the Creator and ioy to the Creature heereafter wee neuer finde warranted in diuine or humane records I admit that there is a quallity of brightnesse giuen to cleere bodies euen from the Creation that this light is called the soule of the world and must be first incorporat as a visible quallity in a cleere body before it can giue light vegetat or make inanimat things pleasant This light was incorporat in the sunne whose vertue and essence cherisheth the essence of euery creature but the full knowledge of the tillage of light ariseth from the true notice of the first and last end of things as man was created of pure earth coagulat by pure ayre so his last end is to shine as the sunne There bee spirituall intellectuall and sensible perfections of light the first is that inaccessible light which seeth all things but is comprehended of nothing the second is a spirituall reallity whose nature possesseth no place yet is intyrely whole in euery part of his circumscription by the third wee vnderstand the senssible perfection of the Sunne Moone and Starres Because heauen and earth differ not essentially being originally from one Chaos but in the order of beings and prime termination therefore as Kings Rulers and Magistrates and others eminent in Charge are called lights as hauing relation to supreame light so wee may take precious stones salts and mettalls for inferiour fixed lights for the better pollishing of nature and illustration of art the knowledge and vse whereof Angels and men are not able to expresse The lowest
kinde of light we apprehend as it is a meanes whereby the eye discerneth his oblect or as it is substansified in man or as it is fixed in a Homogeniall body of naturall radicall heate as in precious stones salts and mettals of the last whereof we are heare to consider specially what nature and art can doe either ioyned or seuered in reducing of mettalls to the perfection and multiplication of millions by proiection of an Elixar vpon vnrefined metalicall substances whether the Philosophers perfection is literally to bee vnderstood of a materiall Elixar or whether Vrim and Thummim aurum dei Ezekiells coales of fire quintessence and Philosophers elixar are meant of multiplication of gold by art or whether Alchimists haue wrongfully enforced these titles vpon the Philosophers worke as Sophisters cauill vpon words when they want matter which are onely to bee vnderstood in an allegoricall sense In this consideration wee must beginne againe at the true ends of diuine light and Philosophy whose designes are as I haue said vnder shadowes to exalt the excellency of wisdome and not to keepe her as a Buson to spend idle time neither to wrong nature or flatter art by making the one beleeue what shee cannot doe and by perswading the other to bring imposture into the world Nature onely extendeth her selfe to the first perfection of the Creatures and produceth naturall effects from naturall causes Art by it selfe can but dignifie and pollish natures workes by a kinde of sublimation separate the grosse parts from the pure rectifie the substance of things draw from vile things wholesome and good effects but neuer adde essence to the first substāce other then it had before Nature art ioyned may attain more glorious perfections yet is miraculous multiplication of vnrefined substances of another nature by proiection without the extent of their Commission least surrepticiously they should vsurpe vpon the great wheele of the world their Ruler and presumptuously intrude into their soueraignes place For that All-seeing eye which pearceth through ages as the sunne through the ayre did from the beginning foresee the corruption of nature curious peruersenes of art therefore to stay the one and the other hee did confine them within the precinct of his will least they should extend their il actions as farre as their ill wills I grant through an admirable wisdome hee hath left some part of these low terrestriall things vnperfected in a kinde to serue vnto man as matter to worke vpon he hath giuen vs corne not bread but art to make it woole and not cloth but art to make it mines not money but art to coyne it and hee hath giuen vs stones not buildings but art to make them This Al-seeing light hath established a rule and certaine law whereby all things must bee produced disposed and maintained in their owne kinde which regular order so long as wee make it not an essence separate from him wee may call it nature hee hath apointed art to bee natures helper and to cooperate with her in the great hopes of the world But hath barred both of them from transmutation by a prematured birth of things of another quallity into such a fixed perfection as may multiply millions neither can nature and art multiply otherwise then by putrifaction and propogation it is his eternall decree that none of his Creatures be inuested in that glorie which is proper to himselfe least foolish man should ptesume vpon base earth or thinke that hee had committed the gouernment of his Creatures to his seruants nature and art to set himselfe at rest who is still in action shyning in his wonderfull workes in communicating his infinit goodnesse to all his Creatures and aboue all to man These be great Master-peeces of light which none but his owne hand can worke whereby it must necessarily follow that whatsoeuer powerfull faculties wee obserue in the second causes they must not induce vs to thinke that the first cause is idle or that the others doe any thing but the direction of the first farre lesse must wee beleeue that this order and continuance of things which wee call nature is the chiefe cause of them but the effect of the will of diuine prouidence and beames of the great light no more then in musicke the melody is not the cause but the effect of concords produced by the skill and art of the Musitian who gathereth the sounds and reduceth them to consonance This diuine prouidence is so powerfull that he can apply any thing to doe his pleasure though hee seldome lets the naturall course and vse of nature and art yet carrieth hee them where he pleaseth and like that great circle of heauen that inuellopeth all the rest doth hee dragge them after him about the world You see then that nature and art either seuerally or ioyntly are but the handmaids of diuine prouidence which filleth gouerneth ouerspreadeth all things and ruleth euery part thereof with infallible councell and most certaine reasons that wee doe not apprehend this sacred light but either very late or not at all is because this wisdome is so deepe that we cannot penetrate vnto it or that our negligence or stupidity is so great that wee vouchsafe not to consider rightly what nature and art can doe and what they cannot doe What more fond conception can there bee then that art by fire can force nature to produce that which in the current of her course and connexion of causes shee cannot doe or that nature and art ioyned can Metaphisically transmute natures works to other ends then they were created or forme them in other moulds then their own Wee may as probably suggest that art may enable fish to liue and multiply vpon the land beasts in the ayre and foules without ayre as that Mineralls remooued from their naturall places may by art bee brought to multiply in a greater perfection then by nature in the wombe of the earth where the sunne applieth his force according to the quallity and disposition of the matter for Mineralls can neuer be said properly to multiply or propogate because they haue onely elementall mixture but wants either vegetable seed or sensible quallity That the mysticall inuolution of all those titles and operations which might seeme to point at a materiall Elixar were to other and better ends then Alchimists imagine shall be prooued by the truth of diuine and humane wisdome First as the Almighty did shadow vnder the great name of Iehouah his eternity omnipotency iustice and mercie to teach the sonnes of wisdome to admire adore feare and magnifie him who was before all time glorious in Maiesty omnipotent in power impartiall in Iustice and superabundant in Mercie so in beautifying the Priest-hood with the rich ornaments of nature and art hee adorned the breast-plate of Aaron with twelue precious stones according to the twelue Tribes leauing a place in the midst for Vrim and Thummim intimating by the first the purity and graces wherewith
Pastors and people ought to be indued heare vpon earth and by the second their perfection in the Kingdome of Grace and glory in heauen hereafter That Vrim and Thummim signifie light and perfection wee are not to doubt but that they were artificiall substansified substances is not yet cleered As the rest of Ezekiels vision was a similitude of the glory of the Lord in the deliuery of his Ambassage to the Prophet so by the firie coales or stone mentioned in that vision is meant the force and effects of Gods word Aurum Dei spoken of in that prophesie or else where in Scripture alluds to the incomprehensible goodnesse of the Creator and to the holinesse and thankefulnesse required in the prime Creature But if wee beleeue that any of these pointed at a materiall elixar or substance to be sought by art if it bee not heresie it is grosse errour all Scripture as Isidor learnedly seconds the rest of the Fathers ought to be interpreted morrally and vnderstood Spiritually whosoeuer then applieth it otherwise to things that peruert the nature order and meaning of Scripture may be good textuaries but are rash text-wresters and not better grounded in Diuity then Rabbelais or the Curat that applied the authority of his horse to those that denyed purgatorie It was Arius prancke Verba Scripturarum simplicia sicuti in eis reperiuntur itidem vt Diabolus assimulare to wreast sinfully the words of Scripture as they are expressed if wee may beleeue Eusebius is a loosnesse of liberty and lightnesse of vanity more then any of the Fathers durst take vpon them Next that the strayning of the Philosophers work to an artificiall Elixar powerfull to multiply Gold by proiection driues all wit out of harmony I prooue by the chiefe ayme of Phylosophie then by the harmefull consequences which the infinite multiplication of Golde would produce All Phylosophers agree that their principall ayme is to extract a light or a true Summum bonum as they call it or content from the contempt of adulterate inconstant terrestriall suggestions and delights if this bee true as most true it is it would follow that Philosophers would neuer haue bestowed so much labour in vntwining a Spiders web and finding out a light by the multiplication of Gold which they did hold their Summum malum and in so base account that some of them when they had it did throw it in the Sea others when they might haue had it did refuse and reiect it that they might with more ease attaine to that content which Philosophie enioyeth from which the cursed care of Gold so much detracteth that as Experience telles vs by it Religious dueties are prophaned Iustice corrupted all bonds of ciuill societie and true friendship are infringed and the light of Humanitie quite rased out of the mindes of worldly Golden Spirits Secondly if it were possible to multiply or transmute a greater proportion of other vnrefined Mettals into Gold by proiection what benefit should thereby arise either to the Philosophers or from them to others they should acquire nothing by it but corruption of manners and staine of their profession others but the euersion of all politike gouernment mutuall commerce and industrious exchange Kings should be inferiour to Philosophers in the purchase of so great Treasure and so all Soueraigntie to whom by all Nationall Lawes belong the prerogatiue of all Gold and Siluer Mynes would turne againe to a confusion and hotch-potch many that are now holden wise would perhaps turne fooles and those that haue now little wit would haue then none at all Wee should see euery couetous pennie-father mercilesse Vsurer and Iewish Broker become Philosophers and conuert the blood of the poore vpon which they now feed into the new found Elixar We should see the Philosophers pearne their Cloaks and become insatiable worldlings vsurious Caterpillars hellish pawn-mungers and cut the garments of the necessitous to make them riding coates in their iourney towards hell O what a pitifull sight were it to see the of-falls of heauen the drugges of the earth and hells fit fagots inuested in heauens richest indowments But what more tragicall spectacle were it to behold Vertue stript naked spoyled of her beautie heauens gate which now stands open for her close shut vp and the entrie confined to the narrow passage of a Needles eye through which how hard it is for Asses loaden with Golde and corruption to enter the Master of Heauen when hee was vpon Earth hath foretold I tremble as in an Ague to heare of this exchange that Vice should reach Heauen and Vertue enter in the right way to Hell O deceitfull Riches how falsely are you called goods who knoweth you rightly may entitle you to be true euils none makes vs bond-slaues but you none wrongeth vs but you you abridge vs of our libertie and intercepts vs in our way towards Heauen O pelfe none can praise you but must dispraise true Libertie None can get you or keepe you without the hazzard of loosing themselues you are Achanes Wedges or Turnus his girdle that bereaues vs of life So ticklish and hard is your vse that seldome do you more good nor harme I do verily beleeue if frowning Fortune can fauour good men in any thing it is in releeuing them from that burthen that so sore presseth their shoulders But thinke mee not so surcharged with passion as I seeme to fauour a Stoycall austeritie Heremitish retyrednesse or voluntary pouerty I affect lawfull libertie in the first and am so farre from barring good men from the right vse of Riches that if I were not fully assured that diuine Prouidence hath her secret endes for our weale and knoweth better what is good for vs then our selues I should goe neere to suspect her of Iniustice in vnequall sharing of her temporal goods which so long as we vse as dispensators of them to the supply of our owne wants and helping of the necessities of others so long are they Heauens good blessings and the charitable dispensation of them is the concomitant effect of sauing Faith yea they are so necessary to the best of men that without them they are not able to effect that good which they would doe But when we adore Gold for God and in chesting or putting of it to vnlawfull vse starues our fellow members and smoothers Vertue with want or when we make it the fuell of Ambition corruption and iniustice then iustly may those blessings bee changed into curses Riches which were giuen to bee our seruile vassals and dutifull seruants in our iourney towards happinesse bee made our racking Land-lords or mercilesse executioners heere and the Paradisian sword to barre our entry there where before we can haue a Quietus est wee must giue account tam eorum que accepimus quam eorum que rapuimus Moysture was not giuen to Springs to remaine in the place where it is bred but to be conueyed by Conduits to the watering of barren drie grounds Nature at first
losse of their labors Therefore since words without deeds are weake proofes I reiect such authoritie as Apochryphall and am so farre from beleeuing such fairded suggestions that if the Phylosophers positions were literally to bee vnderstood I should neuer hold them other then like Mathematicall demonstrations wherein by many fayre propositions is prooued much whereof no Artificer can make vse vpon Wood or Stone I should not much wrong the Philosophers if I should iouially coniecture that the punctuall setting downe a seeming reall Elixar was to exercise curious spirits least they should precipitate themselues vpon the more dangerous Rockes of higher forbidden Mysteries or become altogether idle for although the more wee looke vpon the Sunne the more our eyes are dazelled and our sight worse yet are our mindes fraughted with such peruerse curiositie that they ayme at things aboue our reach On the other side Oliâ—dant vitia Idlenesse is the cursed mother of many wicked brood and is the tares which the enuious sowe when wee sleepe It is obserued for future posteritie that whilest the Romanes had warre with Carthage and enemies in Affricke they knew not what vice meant in Rome Idlenesse is that Laconish mother Schoole-master and Burreawe that bringeth foorth teacheth and hangeth vp Theeues or what shall I call her but the infected ayre that ingendreth caterpillers which consume the sweete of other mens sweat If it were strictly obserued that none should eate but such as labour in their owne calling I thinke moe should die of hunger then of sickenesse but it is pitie that such Drones or Domitian flees should eate vp the Hony of the painefull or swarme in the Courts dedicate to Vertue Euery man ought to haue a sweating Browe to beget the necessities of life or a working Braine to aduance the publique good the most Blessed alloweth of no Cyphers in his Arithmatique Paradise was as well a Shop to exercise Adams hands with labour as it was a Garden to feede his Senses with delight To this purpose in the discouery of Curiositie and Idlenesse the minde of man is fitly compared to a Clocke composed of many wheeles admitting euery day change and alteration sometimes it goeth too fast sometimes too slowe when it is idle it is alwayes subiect to rust but skilfully wrought neatly kept carefully winded vp and orderly set to a right houre then in action it sheweth faire and goeth right If wee would haue our mindes goe in right temper wee must propose vnto our selues those Rules that may conduct and auayle vs most in the right carriage of all our actions although sometimes the successe bee thwarted and concurre not alwayes with our desires yet wee must be still in action Many skilfull Pylots haue suffered Shipwracke that were well acquainted with the Art and experience of Nauigation and others lesse seene therein haue ouerpast many dangerous Voyages yet were it folly to inferre that without Arte Experience Card or Astrolobe wee should trie the dangers of Nauigation But whither goe I my purpose was to speake somewhat of the true elixar and to prooue that the text of Philosophers that writ vpon it or the Commentaries and Orthodoxe exposition of those places are either strained or altogether mistaken which shall be cleered by that which followeth Hermes Isindarius in codice omnis veritatis the great Rosary the pandects of Mary the Prophetise as some name her Morien Auicen Balzane Abugazall Bengedide his brother Abumazar Hali Calib Esid Serapien Thomas in breuilogs Michaell Scot in his breuiary Hemas in his retractions Aros the Arabian King and learned Philosopher and the most part of all the Philosophers hold foure chiefe tenents of this Elixar First the Mercurie is taken to be the chiefe matter to worke vpon Secondly they hold that much punding and beating of the matter inculcat by Tere Tere Tere atque iterum Tere ne te tedeat quickneth and refineth the spirits and vertue thereof and maketh the matter fit for the worke Thirdly they maintaine that fixing of Volatile is the Magisterum or master peece of that worke Lastly they say when the red colour is espoused or conioyned to the white the worke is perfected A superficiall censure might take these literally and conclude that preparing sifting ponding of the matter putting of it in fit vessels luting and calcination sometimes feeding of that sulphurious furie with soft sometimes with more hot fire might in the end bring fourth some Salamander but let vs not bee deceiued with such excursory suruey and consider iudiciously what Aristotle in his light of lights Avulfanes in his Pandects Daniell in his retracts Euclides in his Philosophicall meteours and almost all the Philosophers workes affirme in these words our Mercury is not common Mercurie our gold signified by the red colour is not common gold neither our siluer signified by the white colour vulgar siluer they are quicke the other dead they sperituall the other corporall what then is the Philosophers Mercury but wisdome the childe of heauen and the glory of the earth the pounding and mixing of the matter is the beating downe and qualifying of our affections in the morter of a wise heart the feeding of it with more or lesse fire is the timely pressing and relaxing of our corrupt will the fixation of volatile is the reduction of our inconstant running wits to the solidity of true wisedome Lastly the Redde colour ioyned to the white which crownes the worke giues vs to vnderstand that perseuerance in vertue will gaine vs the garland of victorie ouer all foraigne incumbrances and subdue our vnruly domesticke affections which vnlesse they be ouercome pounded qualified sublimat fixed to a pure Syndon-like white are euer ready to debord from the precinct of reason to a soule-killing liberty We may see then as a picture drawne by a skilfull workeman should haue relation to al the parts it imitateth so the pounding feeding fixing and perfecting of the Elixar onely fitly resemble the inconstancy and ebulition of our affections which are ready to breake out and mar the glorious perfection of light vnto which Philosophy intendeth to bring vs if the most powerfull spirit of sanctification by transmutation doe not Captiuate the powers and faculties of our soule Let vs goe a little further in the seuerall operations circumstances and qualities of the Philosophicall elixar and wee shall finde that neither of them may be fitly adapted to any thing else then to mans formation in vertue All ancient and moderne Philosophers agree that by the true mixture of heate and cold moist and dry wee attaine to the knowledge of the qualities of things engendred thereby as hard soft heauy light rough smoothe that in the elementall Commixtion the seuerall elements as water earth fire and ayre are to bee graduate in the degrees That although earth be most vile yet is it most apt for mulplication and generation is the onely fixed element whose multiplication is no lesse admirable then that of fire whereof one
sparke kindled in combustible matter will increase till the subiect bee consumed Againe all those Philosophers doe mystically obserue that the Commixtion of the foure elements must be Gramatically that is in Orthographicall disposition and conuenient Concordance Rhetorically that is orderly ornatly or neatly Logically that is by true kindes not sophisticated that they must bee ioyned Arithmetically by proportionable numbers Musically in the melody of true accord and in the effects of harmony which are glorious neither say Philosophers is Astrologie to bee neglected for knowing the seasons of Coniunction Lastly Magicall obseruation much auaileth that is wisdome to know the right disposition of the whole worke When the elements saith Anaxagoras be thus orderly disposed and digested then will colours draw towards perfection naturally will be sublimat to an intellectuall heate which operation is knowne seldome and by few when the naturall heate is thus purified then nature and art by degrees aspire to perfection which is knowne by chainge of colours in the work which as the foure Complexions in man according to the right temperature of elements their quallities and their opposed passiues beget a digestion which may be as well sometimes in outward cold which begetteth inward heate as in outward heate which causeth inward cold although the chiefe digester bee the vitall heate of the degerent that the heate of the digested things helpes the digestion and the working thereof Because Coagulation is no substanticall forme but the passion of materiall things in the elementall Commixtion the Agent in the operation of colours is wisely to bee examined sometimes it is heate sometimes cold sometimes moisture sometimes drynesse and those bee the causes of colours Whitenesse is caused by cleere matter terminat in a fit subiect blacke colour when parts of a darke body oppresse the cleerenesse of the subiect Again by Commixtion of light and darkenesse are engendred the meane colours which shew also according to the more or lesse heate or cold drynesse or moisture as greene colour is a Commixtion of cleere water with earth by combust substance so the cleerer the earth be the purer the greenesse is Rubie colour is a thin fume in a cleere body which is cleere or darke according to the quantity of the light as appeareth in the Amatist which hath lesse cleerenesse and more obscurity Tauny colour is of terminat cleerenesse infused with a thicke fumosity congregat by water and succensed by earth Pale colour is of watrish earthly parts which being cold and thicke are fixed in a kinde as in dying or pale faced enuious men in whom the naturall bloud leaueth the exterior parts and resorteth to comfort the heart the Saphire or orient blew like vnto the heauen is much fairer then the liuid pale colour because it participats more with water ayre and light all other blew colours the sadder they bee they haue lesse ayre and more earth Siluer colour turned to a bright azure is caused by brightnesse and perspicuity of ayre Yellow citrine or golden colour is caused by strong decoction and digestion of humours ingendred by heate as in gold hony and gaule and this colour is begotten of white and red Thus haue you the elementall commixtion colours and qualities to bee considered in the Philosophers worke as the operation thereof begets diuers digestions and degrees of more or lesse perfection in the Creatures so the participation and operation of supreame light workes diuers effects in the minde of that prime Creature which is onely capable of the beames and impression thereof and in this minde of man an equality is most necessary There must bee saith Aristotle no repugnancie nor diuision in our stone till all colours haue appeared that naturall matter by supernaturall cooperation may of many colours beget such a colour as is desired which is more precious then all the Iewels in the world therefore concludeth hee common Philosophers can by no naturall meanes attaine to the knowledge of this elixar Many other Philosophers alluding to the same purpose but more to shew their Curiositie then to detect truth adde smelling and tasting to the former apparition of colours but these I ouerpasse as impertinent Others more analogically say that the elixar must be dissolued cherished fixed and reuiued by liquors which are specially to bee considered in purity quantity thicknesse and thinnesse not physically because the true Elixar is a thing of the second intention and hath a Metaphysicall operation Physicians say the more thicke vryne is the more it signifieth humidity but the Phylosophers say the more thick this liquour is it hath the more siciety and the more subtill it is it betokeneth the greater humidity Aristeus saith that ayre is secretly enclosed in water and by an ayeriall power beareth vp earth Aristotle saith that the right separation of water from ayre is a chiefe master-peece of the worke other plaine dealing Philosophers doe holde that Rayne water which commeth of condensed ayre is the chiefe nutritiue liquour others affirme that Dewe falling from Heauen in May before the Sunne enter into Scorpio is a fit liquour for their stones some say that all condensed frostie liquours are to bee reiected because their acuitie is infected and dulled with cold others preferre milke for the whitenesse some water of Litarge and Aâ—ar but Democritus whom I preferre to all â—hese silly men aduiseth to take Coelestiall â—ermauent water whose vertue is to abide all â—inde of fiery tryalls Rupercissa saith that â—he chiefe liquour to refresh the Elixar is Aqua vitae because it is spirituall it will reâ—iue dead things and make grosse matters spirituall Hermes bids vs take a liquour fresher then any water in taste that will neuer consume but the more it is vsed the more it is encreased and this liquour hee calleth Crude Mercurij which is the matter of the white worke All these liquours diuersly illustrate haue naturally diuers powerfull qualities of cleansing both of the substance and meanes by dissolution separation fixation and resoluing matter into Atommes and as liquours haue diuers qualities and operations so are they found by diuers meanes sometimes by cutting as in Terebinth sometimes by pressing as Wine Sydar sometimes by grinding as Oyle liquour is also found by distillation of Vegetables Mettalls and Animalls some Liquours also by naturall working are produced as vrine sweat milke blood all these liquors by a viscositie cleaue to things and leaue part of their substance with them but that vnconstant vagabond Quicksiluer is so fleeting that he will neuer fasten to any thing except to a mettall oâ— his owne kinde that is saith Calib poysonable couetousnesse or flowing riches are seldome fixed or takes holde but in subiects oâ— their owne kinde By the knowledge oâ— diuersities contrarieties and accords we may choose what quality we will make Lord the perfection of loue is best knowen by the defects of hatred of hope by feare of confidencâ— by distrust and of ioy by sorrowe in all these and